January 15, 2012

Today, in Perth Indian team was humiliated again in the third test against Australia, in as many games. It was dubbed as the India’s best chance to win a test series in Australia in last four decades but it has turned out to be a sheer disappointed.

As the match's results were obvious: I'd rather put pics of beutiful Perth City here.

January 6, 2012

Indian nightmare in Australia is continuing with another huge defeat in Sydney. India has their best chance to equal the series 1-1, as Sydney Cricket Ground was relatively favorable to their batting lineup. From the day one Sydney pitch favored the batsmen but Indians couldn’t take advantage of winning the toss.

MS Dhoni has a cool head as a captain, but his captaincy decisions are being questioned in the series and they will be scrutinized as the series will progress. India has been avoiding the issue of their ageing middle order for a while but this is the time for some senior’s players to think for the country and give way for younger batsmen, likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. VVS Laxman has not been performing for a few series now and ‘The Wall’ seems to have holes in it. Rahul Dravid ‘The Wall’, who is known for his text book technique has some astounding figures of getting out bowled. He stands no 2 on hall of shame now; 52 times his wood has been rattled. He might lead the list by the end of this series.

Rahul Dravid

Along the perforated wall Sachin Tendulkar is the only beacon holder for the old group. Sachin seems to be haunted by that illusive hundred that he has been chasing for a while now. Australia, on the other hand, has emerged, once again as the dominant force that they used to be. They have been finding some good pace bowlers but those bowlers, but some of them were made to look mediocre during last Ashes.

Alike India, Australian team has a section ready to be admitted to retirement village but pedestrian Indian bowling attack has added few more years to their working life. Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussy, who owes a big thanks to Pakistanis (Team & bookmakers) for giving them second cricketing life in 2010. Pakistan’s defeat can be associated with greed and PCB’s financial troubles (with a laugh). India’s no 1 position (rolling eyes) is on stake, let’s see what excuse do they have for loosing in Sydney.

Pup has grown up, so we can rightly call him a ‘Dog’, maybe. Michael Clark’s 329 were amazing to watch. And what about his gallant decision to retire on this score? I personally wanted him to get pass 334, just because he deserved to beat Mark Taylor.

March 9, 2011

It is hard to find words to explain Ross Taylor’s over kill of Pakistan bowling attack last night. Ross Taylor is a good hard hitting batsman, the best from New Zealand. I am not being harsh on Taylor but to be frank he has a lot to thank Pakistan bowling attach for giving him great Birthday gifts ++.

In last five overs Pakistan bowling attack was acting on a pre-written script. Over all it was a satisfactory performance but There was some bad acting by Shoaib Akhtar. Anyone who has slight interest in cricket would know the strength of Ross Taylor is mid-wicket and he plays same short too often. I don’t even like to say anything about Abdul Razzaq, who would play a little cameo once after thirty or forty games, mostly when he suspect he is about to be kicked out of the team. In his current situation he is not even worth playing for a club cricket let alone an international team.

How do I drop this sitter!!

If I were a betting person I would be a rich man after yesterdays game, the script of the game was very evident from early signals by Shoaib Akhtar and then the stamp of approval was given by our all time great wicket keeper, Kamran Akmal. My observations are purely based on Kamran’s body language. I am not implying that Kamran Deliberately dropped those two chances of Ross Taylor. I have never had any doubts of his wicket keeping abilities, my pet dog does a better job behind the stumps than him.

Clouds of match fixing scandals have surrounded Pakistan Cricket Team for several years. During years many main players have been in and out of the team for different reasons and duration. There is one Kamran, who has done blunders and mega blunders but his position was not really threatened. He has been out of the team for little while just as a precautionary measure to make fun of us forgetful people. It is not only him that is impossible to get rid off, his younger brother Umar Akmal. During the Pakistan’s Australian tour Umar Akmal, who had only a debutant, refused to play a test match if his brother will not be included in the team. Umar Akmal, supposedly, who was deemed a next Sachin Tendulkar by some air heads just after his first century in his first innings.

Pakistan Cricket Board has been treating this family as ‘rarest breed’. Are they really that good? Or, it is a simple case, as most other simple things happen in my country on one simple principle, “might is right”. Someone real power mafia has the support for this family. Zulqarnain Haider incident is another indicator of the might of this mafia behind this family.

After getting rid of Zulqarnain Haider, youngest Akmal got his brother’s position while he was being protect from match fixing saga. Now we have forgotten all what happened in past and the eldest Akmal is back. I have to agree that he is doing his job very well and making some people very rich.

I have written about match fixing in Pakistan cricket before and I still think that PCB is not serious about solving this issue at all.

December 29, 2010

England has done it in style, keeping Ashes urn, winning it in Australia after 18 years. It would not be wrong to say, England outplayed Australia in every aspect of the test match. My pick of the match was Ricky Ponting ‘s argument with cool headed umpire Aleem Dar.

It took good five plus minutes of the test match in, what appeared to be a heated argument between the Rickey Ponting and the Umpire. It was not the first time Ricky Ponting has been involved in on field animated arguments with umpires and opposition. But, surprisingly he was only charged 40% of his match fee, which does not seem to be appropriate. I have seen players been banned for two matches for incident lot minor than this altercation.

Ricky has done a lot of good for Australia but I do not like him because of his lack of sportsman spirit spanned throughout his career. He is on the decline for few years now, his captaincy was under threat during last season as well. Though he got a lucky boost during 2009 when Pakistan toured Australia. He owes a big thanks to Mazhar Majeed for granting him another season in a plate.

I am a firm believer that a great player should leave when he is still considered as one of the best in his area of expertise or at least he should be mature enough to understand the changing nature of their role. Prime examples of great players who said good bye are Adam Gilchrist and McGrath. Steve Waugh was another great example, who came under scrutiny during last season of his career but he shut all of his opponents by hitting one of his best tone in the very last match of his career.

When public start asking – Are we there yet? It does not do any good for the future Autobiography. I would like to see a superb last inning by Ricky and leave the cricket they way he deserve. Doesn’t matter how much do I dislike the non-technical skills of Ricky Ponting I wouldn’t like to see him deported to Tasmania and advised only to race greyhounds, as Damien Flemming mentioned.

October 13, 2010

Indian cricket team and espcially Sachin Tendulkar has proved, why he is the best but humiliating Ricky Ponting’s Australian side. Ricky Ponting widely recognized as one of the Australia’s best ever batsman but he brilliance with the bat was not enough to save Australia in their consecutive test defeats in India

Except his Cricketing skill - Ponting is not very popular in rest of the World

There is no denying in Ricky Pontings batting talent but his ability to captain Australian team has always been hidden behind ever so talented Australian team.On field his rude antics, exceptional fielding skills and special pulling and hooking abilities are hard to miss.Ponting has not been tested as a captain untill recent years, but now his leadership abilities have become evident.

When team is on a winning streak, no one take notice of little mishaps. Ponting had made career ending decisions time and time again throughout his captaining era but he had the backing of master minds like Shane Waren, Glenn McGrath to save him from, literally any situation.

In history, Ponting might go as one of the worst Australian captain in decades. If you look how and why he has lost so many games despite having one of the most talented team under his command.

July 24, 2010

I am a cricket nut, so a big test cricket fan, shorter T20 format just doesn’t do it for me. Today I witnessed an event that I have been waiting for fifteen years, a victory bigger than winning a T20 world cup for me. It is hard to believe but Pakistan’s last test win against Australia was some fifteen years ago.

In last two decades Australia is for cricket that Brazil can even wish for, in soccer. Pakistan had great team and best bowlers in the world in nineties but they could not match the challenge of Australia, though some divine help, always been with the Aussies in this time. If Pakistan had Waqar and Wasim then Australia had McGrath and Warnie and in batting department Pakistan had no reply for Australian calibre.

The extent of this dismal Pakistan’s performance is Australia have won thirteen tests against Pakistan in a series, this record can only be surpassed by Sri Lanka’s twelve wins against Bangladesh. Ok I am not going into more statistical details.

I am fortunate enough to travel to Australia to witness worst defeat in test cricket in earlier this year. Sydney test was the closest Pakistan ever had to a win against mighty Australians in last fifteen years. Guess what they blew it so, like eight years old kid blows birthday candles. I don’t want to take away credit from never say die attitude by Australians.

This match in Headingly had a déjà vu factor, ghosts of Sydney tests kept me away from even watching the finale hours of the game.